Three years since enthusiasts keen to get their hands on the much-coveted Colourful Creatures coins
began queueing outside the Austrian Mint shop on the day of issue, the
bestselling series is now drawing to a close in the shape of the Crayfish, the twelfth and final glow-in-the-dark coin in the series.

Freshwater relatives of the much
bigger lobster, which they resemble closely, crayfish live only in
unpolluted streams, river and lakes as they cannot tolerate contaminated
water sources. For this reason, although once abundant throughout the
continent, the European crayfish, also known as the noble crayfish, has
seen its numbers dwindle. Moreover, it is susceptible to the crayfish
plague carried by the invasive North American signal crayfish, so is
listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List. A traditional food
source, particularly in Scandinavia, the European crayfish is generally
considered to be the finest edible crayfish. The Crayfish features all 12 animals in the Colourful Creatures series
in silhouette on its obverse, while a colour-printed crayfish is shown
on the coin’s glow-in-the-dark reverse. The first ever Austrian 3 euro
coins, Colourful Creatures are legal tender in Austria.